Thursday, June 14, 2018

How To Make Prep A Pallet Sign For Beginners

Hi Foxy Friends! Today I am sharing a project I decided I wanted to do back in March. I don't know how the time escaped me? How does that seem to always happen? I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, and I watched A LOT of YouTube videos and figured I would combine them all together and do whatever the heck I wanted! Okay let's get started.

I did this project for my Aunt who has a wine cellar in her house and she made a tasting room out of it, so I decided to make a sign that says "Good Friend, Good Wine, Good Times". The last time I was at her house I snuck down there and measured how big the space was. So your measurements might vary. Okay let's get to it:

Step 1: This one is important one, go to Home Depot, Lowes or your local hardware store and find the boards that you want. Hint: Home Depot will cut boards for you, as long as you know the length they will cut for you. I know I wanted 4" boards and I wanted them to be 30 inches long. I found a board that I liked the grain in it. I can't remember what I ended up getting. I think I got Maple. Have the guy at your hardware store cut the wood to your specification. You'll also need to pick up a some wood strip, and have them cut that down for you too (if you know the size of your sign, have them cut it to that size)

I knew I wanted 4 boards wide (4 x 4 = 16 inches), wood strip needed to be smaller than that, so I had them cut it to 12 inch lengths.

Now that you have your boards cut for you, head home! Let's get this project started!

Step 2: Sand down the rough edges of the boards, no one wants splinters.

Step 3: Pick a Side and glue
You'll want to pick the side you like the best and have it face down, so you can use the wood strips to attach all of the boards together. I used wood glue to "glue" down the wood strip, but it ended up moving, so I have no idea if you really need this step. I'm fairly certain you don't...Step 4: Drill and Screw

I randomly picked out the screw size, based off of how many/the cheapest I could find, it was a pack of 50 and they were #12 screws. I used a drill bit to start my holes, and drilled through the wood strip and part of the wood board. Then I used the drill to screw in the wood screw, I did this on both ends of each board.Step 5: SandI felt like the screws left some of the boards rough, so I sanded the wood around the screws so no one would get any splinters.

Step 6: Stain the boards then wipe

For this project I wanted to use darker stain. I painted the stain on with a foam brush, then after a few minutes I wipe the stain off the boards with some paper towels. You do this because you are not painting the boards, and you want those gorgeous knots to show through. If you don't wipe the stain off you'll be able to see the streaks of stain on your boards.

I of also made a video for those that like to watch directions, and see how it works. I decided to split it up, so here are steps 1 through 6.

Step 7: Print out your stencils,
I used Vinyl 631 and printed out what I wanted to say "Good Friends, Good Wine, Good Times". I used my Cricut, but you could use the Silhouette, or cut it out yourself. Reverse weed your stencil.

Step 8: Attach Stencil

Attach your stencil how you want it on your pallet.

Step 9: Base Coat

This part I think is sort of optional, but for me I don't want to skip it. This part is going to prevent the bleeding under the letters, because we all know that the vinyl and the wood is not perfect. By using this polycrylic base coat, that is what is going to "bleed" under the letters (which is clear), so when you paint, you get crisp lines. I let the polycrylic set for 15 minutes, then I quickly sanded it down, to make sure that the paint had something to stick to. Remember the Polycrylic was for the paint "bleeding" under the letters so you didn't waste your time doing this step.

Step 10: Paint!

Guess what? It's finally time to paint your sign! I used white paint, but you can use whatever color you want. If you look closely, you can see some of the black vinyl looks "wet", but that's the polycrylic. I did have to go over it three times with the paint. Because of how long it took me to get to the end of the sign, the paint from the beginning was dry, so I circled back to the beginning and did it again without having to stop. I went over it three times, to to make sure you couldn't see the stain behind the paint. It did the job, so I'm guessing three is a good number.

Step 11: Take Stencil Off
I waited 10 minutes before taking the stencil off. Mostly I knew that there was paint everywhere and didn't want to risk the wet paint from the outside of the stencil messing up the rest of the sign. I think the end product turned out fantastic! I wish pallet signs matched the decor of my house, so for now I'll have to settle for making them for other people.

Step 12: Seal

I'm not sure how necessary this step is, but I decided I wanted to seal the whole thing. I mean no one wants the paint peeling right? So I used a spray sealer to seal the whole project. I probably could have used the polycrylic from before, but I felt like the spray would be easier to use...It worked great, and I feel better that my sign is sturdy and sealed.

Side note: I did this for a 60th birthday gift. I decided to have the guest of the party sign the back, which was a great keep sake for my Aunt. I tried many different pens out and the ones that worked best? The ones from Michael's that I use for scrapbooking, so no special pens necessary.

What do you think? I think it turned out great! So what sign should I make next? I'll have the next video with steps 7-12 up next week, so stay tuned!